


An Easy Answer

by annamatopia



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Character Study, Gen, hell dreams
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-06
Updated: 2014-05-06
Packaged: 2018-01-23 18:32:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1575344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annamatopia/pseuds/annamatopia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>You have the power.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Easy Answer

Every time he dreams he feels the burning chill of ice in his esophagus, dripping into his lungs. The metal tongs sear his lips and cheeks as they pry his mouth open, and then a tooth is gone, and another. The red-hot razor draws lines in his charred flesh, and sometimes the knife feels so cold it’s like ice.

And always, always there’s a snake-slither voice in his ear, telling him he has the power, he can stop this, if he just says yes.

Then just before he wakes up, he breathes in the sulfur, feels his naked lungs rake in fire. Breathes out, yes.

It’s funny, he thinks after the throes of his nightmares, that this whole mess starts and ends with just one word. And it would be so easy, so simple, to just give in, as simple as a salt ‘n burn, as easy as a bullet in his brain.

They show him the world, show him how it’s going to burn. You have the power, you can stop this, just say yes, they whisper, and there’s the unspoken promise of you can protect Sammy. He wavers between his family and the world, teetering on the edge of the easy way out.

But when he’s on the floor battling stomach cancer, watching his baby brother wheeze into an empty chest, it’s really the simplest decision in the world.

“No.”


End file.
